Talking to princess' sis part of Lauer's busy week

NEW YORK (AP) — Pippa Middleton told NBC News she had no idea how big her sister Kate's 2011 marriage to Prince William would be, since she saw it as just another family wedding.

"That stopped me in my tracks, that she looked at this as, 'Oh, my sister is getting married,' not that, 'Oh, I'm the maid of honor in the royal wedding,'" said NBC's Matt Lauer, who conducted the interview.

The "Today" show host traveled to London this week to interview the princess' sister, her first television interview. "Today" is airing Lauer's report in two parts Monday and Tuesday.

Lauer said Friday he had talked to Middleton's representatives about speaking to her during a just-completed charity bike ride in the United States. They said no, but that maybe she would talk later. A day after she got back, they called and told Lauer to fly to London.

Lauer said many people are interested in how Middleton seems, and what she sounds like, since they've never seen her interviewed.

"A lot of people are curious about how life has changed for her over these past two or three years," he said. "Yes, there were a lot of ladies here at the office that want to know what became of the dress. Does she still have it? Will she wear it again? It clearly made her famous in a lot of ways."

He said Middleton is shy, but very down-to-earth.

"I think they are going to like her very much. I think she is going to pleasantly surprise people," he said.

"Today" released a few excerpts from the interview, where Middleton talks about how her relationship with her sister has changed since the royal wedding, and her impressions of the United States.

It was a busy week for Lauer, who recently signed a new contract to stay at "Today," one believed to make him the highest-paid person in television news.

Besides flying to London for the Middleton interview, he interviewed Amy Van Dyken, an Olympian injured in an accident. He also had a live interview Thursday with General Motors CEO Mary Barra that attracted some criticism for a question he asked her about juggling work and parenthood.

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David Bauder can be reached at dbauder@ap.org or on Twitter @dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder.